Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

I'm sure you're super excited to endorse your everyday working MAGA politician. You know, those guys you're always holding up who represent your WV values.

The story of Republicans blatantly, publicly, going out of their way to recruit self-funding, ultra-millionaires to run in key U.S. Senate races has been a favorite topic of mine for some time now. It also now appears that I have understated the scope of this story.

In New Mexico, where progressive Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is seeking re-election, the Republican nominee is ultra-millionaire Nella Domenici, a financial executive worth between $21,285,000 and $94,120,000, according to financial disclosures. Nella Domenici is the daughter of former U.S. Senate Pete Domenici, and she has loaned her campaign $1,000,000 of her own money. New Mexico is surprisingly close right now, with the most recent poll showing Sen. Heinrich ahead by only 6%.

And of course, how could I have forgotten about Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott? Scott has an estimated net worth of about one quarter of a billion dollars, loaned his own campaign $5.8 million dollars during the most recent fundraising quarter. Scott is also in a surprisingly competitive race, with the most recent poll showing him ahead of the likely Democratic nominee, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell, by only 4%.

This is all in addition to Tim Sheehy in Montana (CEO worth as much as $200 million), Bernie Moreno in Ohio (car dealership owner worth as much as $168 million ), David McCormick in Pennsylvania (hedge fund manager worth as much as $200 million) and Eric Hovde in Wisconsin (financial executive worth at least $67 million). All four of these candidates have loaned their Senate campaigns at least $1.6 million, and in some cases much more (see Open Secrets and Roll Call for more info).

Add this all up, and the majority of the Republican candidates in key U.S. Senate races this year are self-funding ultra-millionaires. It's not hard to imagine what they will do with the U.S. Senate if they do get control of it.

To fight back against this attempted oligarchical takeover of the U.S. Senate, I have added Sen. Martin Heinrich and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell to the Bowers News Media "Defeat the Arch Millionaires" Act Blue page, where they join Sens. Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, and Tammy Baldwin. All six are real, down to earth people–not to mention good Democrats in must-win races–with a track record of delivering for their constituents, not their own bottom lines.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2024/05/self-funded-candidates-put-166-million-in-campaigns/?link_id=13&can_id=ba13e7838fd3c6b025e3cc98ffe351c2&source=email-there-are-even-more-republican-self-funding-arch-millionaires-running-in-key-us-senate-races-than-i-realized-please-read&email_referrer=email_2412318&email_subject=florida-montana-new-mexico-ohio-pennsylvania-and-wisconsin-at-risk